[Buildroot] initramfs compression and some other questions

[Valentine Barshak <gvaxon@gmail.com>]

Hi,
I've been using buildroot for a small (i586) Linux recovery image, 
having both the kernel and initramfs root in a single image.

By default, buildroot (linux/linux.mk) sets GZIP compression for 
initramfs, and there's no option to choose other compression mode.

My question is why is GZIP compression forced for initramfs?
IMHO, initramfs compression doesn't make much sense, since
the kernel is compressed altogether with initramfs, and we
have double compression, that adds more size to the resulting image
and time overhead when unpacking.

Why not remove the following lines from linux.mk?
$(call KCONFIG_DISABLE_OPT,CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_NONE,$(@D)/.config)
$(call KCONFIG_ENABLE_OPT,CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_GZIP,$(@D)/.config))

Or probably use KCONFIG_ENABLE_OPT,CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_NONE 
instead?

Besides, there are other compression methods supported by linux kernel,
so why force GZIP?

BTW, I have submitted a number of patches to the list, that attempt
to fix some of the issues I've encountered while building my recovery 
image. Is it the right place to share patches or do I need to use bugz 
and file a bug for each change?

I have some more changes that I'd like to share.
It's been no ack/nack for the stuff I sent last week. So I'm kind of 
wondering whether this stuff is needed upstream.

And the last question is about adding new packages to buildroot.
For example, do you plan to add a pdf viewer?

I've added epdfview, it seems to work fine. Is there any reason
to not include it in the mainstream buildroot?

I've also added tigervnc for my small recovery image.
Seems to work fine as well.
Do you plan to include it as well or is it considered unneeded for the 
majority of the buildroot users?

Thanks,
Val.